From the point of view of a psychology/art student.

It’s been a while, guys.

Hey, guys! I know, it’s been a long time. I’ve written maybe three things in the past six months, and that’s pretty not cool. But if you were wondering how I’ve been doing, I feel that this picture pretty much sums it up:

Basically, I have traded in my blood for coffee.

This past semester has been the most difficult that I’ve had yet, and I find myself missing the relatively light workload that I had my freshman and sophomore years. Junior year is tough! I basically haven’t been sleeping, and I’ve completely lost motivation to actually get work done and study. Because of this, I definitely am seeing lower grades than normal. Granted, low grades for me means that I’m getting more Bs than As, but it’s still two more Bs than normal in a semester.

I’ve just felt like I’ve been rushing with no breaks. The moment one exam or paper or print is finished, I’m starting another because I’m already behind. Plus, all of my classes have been more labour intensive than usual, which adds an extra element that I hadn’t really been expecting.

I also moved off of campus for this semester, so I’ve been adjusting to living in a house with Noah and Jess. Not that it’s a major adjustment, though. We get along marvellously, I love having a room to myself to decorate and be introverted in, and I’ve enjoyed doing my own cooking. Sure, I miss the conveniences of living on campus, but all-in-all, I’m satisfied with the change.

This is where I spend the majority of my time not sleeping and instead studying, reading, and wasting my life on tumblr.

Meanwhile, I’ve been having a lot of trouble keeping level-headed and maintaining my weight since August. I’ve been under a lot of stress because of complications with getting my fake tooth, where everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong, and it put me into a mini depression that ended up rearing its ugly head once course work got rolling. I spent a lot of August, September, and October absolutely hating myself, and it only started to get better last month. With every wrong move I’d make, a little voice in my head would just whisper I hate myself. or I hate everything. I’ve never been the type of person to put myself down in this kind of way. Sure, I’m hard on myself, but I’ve never felt such a hatred for myself. It was getting absolutely unbearable, and I’d begin to beat myself for beating myself up.

In the end, I probably needed some sleep. I needed time to find a sense of self that was healthy. I needed Thanksgiving break. Things improved over that time. I didn’t get ahead on coursework, and I didn’t get a long list done that I needed to in Saint Charles. But I did get my tooth (finally!), and I picked up a few more articles of clothing that would fit me better, and I finally had time to just sleep and day-dream. It was such a relief.

I’m feeling a lot better now, but, coming back for the end of the semester is still difficult. Last week contained most of my finals and papers/projects due, and there were some nights where I literally didn’t go to bed and had to squeeze in an hour around midnight so that I could work during the early morning hours when I feel most mentally awake.

It’s been a bit rough, but I’ve found that I can get a lot done even on very little, if no, sleep. I know that it’s not healthy. I know, I know, I know. It’s just how I operate as a procrastinator and some-what perfectionist. They go hand in hand, really. You procrastinate because of the fear that you won’t reach perfection. But when you don’t have enough time to reach perfection, you self-handicap and say that it’s all right that you didn’t reach the point you had wanted. After all, you’d had so little sleep last night, how could you have gotten higher than a B on that exam? (Oh, poor baby. Bleh.)

I mentioned earlier that I’ve been having a lot of trouble keeping my weight at a stable level. For the entirety of my life, this would mean that I’ve gained a bunch of weight and am feeling all self-conscious about it… until now. I don’t know how, but I’ve lost twenty pounds in only three months. I went from being near 160 to 142. Everyone I’ve told gives me some type of congratulation as though I’ve been working so hard or something, but I just stand there thinking, But this is not what I wanted! I haven’t tried to lose weight. I don’t like that I can’t fit into any of my clothing; I figured I’d be a size twelve for years, so I’d started buying my clothes to last and cost more. Suddenly, I don’t fit into any of my skirts or pants or bras. My shirts aren’t tugging in the same ways (hell, I can now wear shirts that I haven’t been able to fit into since I was fourteen). I look at photos of my face from earlier this year, and I literally can’t recognise myself (okay, this may be because of the prosopagnosia, but disregard that) because I’ve lost so much weight from my face. My arms look different, my collar bones show more, my cheek bones seem a bit higher, my legs more defined, my stomach flat.

I am beautiful. And I am completely frightened.

I can’t stop losing weight, and I don’t know what to do. I don’t know if I believe the people who have told me that it’s from walking more with living off campus or because I’m cold all of the time and using more energy to keep warm. I feel bad every time I look in the mirror and think I look good, because this can’t be healthy. And then I argue with myself because I shouldn’t feel bad about being happy with the way I look. It’s just an odd situation that I’ve never been in before, and I don’t know how to deal with it.

I don’t really know how to deal with anything, actually. But… that’s okay. It’s been okay for about a week now. Between panicking and extreme euphoria and an excessive amount of work, this past week has been interesting, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I wish I could tell you more at this point, but I’m still trying to find my footing. Just suffice it to say that something is going really, really well, and I can’t remember the last time that I was this happy.

So, while I leave you on a note of mystery, I hope it was positive. Because I’m feeling positive, even with all of the stress that I’ve carried for the past few months. Sometimes, life is pretty good, and there are blue skies, and you can’t help but smile.

One Response

I lost a lot of weight when I was in college too, it was from stress and lack of sleep. Sounds familiar…

Since then I’ve gained it all back and then some LOL

Best advice I can give is this: don’t take life too seriously. Enjoy the little things. Here in San Diego, it’s raining today for the first time in quite a while… I’m enjoying the sound and smell of it… very relaxing.

And if you’re not already, you should familiarize yourself with the meditation technique of focusing on the present.